In 1971, residents who cared about Kingsdown and the way it looked set up the Kingsdown Conservation Group. Those residents had successfully fought the Council’s plans to demolish large parts of this historic Georgian suburb – back in those days some buildings looked like this:
In 1973, Kingsdown was designated a conservation area – “an area of special architectural or historic interests, whose character and appearance it is desirable to preserve or enhance”.
Today the situation is different. The Council supports our work; it has produced a Kingsdown Conservation Area Character Appraisal, which identifies the townscape details that contribute positively to the conservation area and describes its negative features. What gives Kingsdown its special sense of place is its village atmosphere, which is created by its views, historic street pattern and the quality of the Georgian houses. It has a human scale. Kingsdown has 200 listed buildings, 49% of the total, and a number of surviving setted streets. The private areas of green space are an essential characteristic of Kingsdown.
The main threats to the conservation area are the loss of traditional gardens to infill and parking, unsympathetic infill development, poor building maintenance and loss of architectural details. Kingsdown’s streets suffer from the volume of parking and the litter of wheely bins and graffiti. . The hospital continues to leave Marlborough Hill blighted with poorly designed temporary buildings and it wants to over-develop some of its surplus land to sell. The University has permission to build an over-sized building that would overbear the St. Michael’s Hill / Tyndall Park junction. For the time being it has postponed the remainder of its ambitious development plans. These concerns need constant vigilance.
Members and Committee
Members are from households in Kingsdown and the near by surrounding area. The Committee is made up of about 8 members and meets once every two months to respond to planning applications and proposed developments. It writes KCG’s responses to the Council’s new planning policy documents that affect Kingsdown.
It has a representative on the Council’s CAP committee.
It posts items of interest on two noticeboards, one at the end of Kingsdown Parade/ Fremantle Road and the other opposite the Kingsdown Vaults on Clevedon Terrace as well as running this website with its archive material and over 1000 photos on Flickr.
Membership / Contact
To request a membership form, please contact us using the form below, and one of our members will contact you:
Kingsdown Conservation Group takes your privacy seriously: For further information please read our Privacy Policy.
